My impressions of CES

Posted on January 8, 2015 by sumi

This year, I got to go to CES for the first time. The opportunity to be surrounded by tech and gaming gadgets? Two words : bear heaven.

Except it was about as crowded as my last year’s Chinese New Year experience. Should have known.

Still, I happily wandered the isles checking out weird fitness gadgets and trackers. And then we were at the 3D printer section.

3D printers!

Ever since I can remember, I’ve wanted a 3D printer. See, being a bear my size is tough. Things aren’t usually sized for spirit bears. I’ve gotten by this whole time because my bear bud occasionally throws me a bone and makes me things my size (like my sweet commander jacket and commander chair), but really we all know life would be more bear-able with more bear sized things.

So with much excitement I came across a contest! The New Matter guys were releasing an affordable <$400 3D printer and they were going to give away one every day! My chance to win one! (Too bad I missed it when they were $149 earlybird)

I followed the rules and tweeted my selfie to them:

Didn’t win yesterday but fingers crossed since today’s my last chance!

Wandering on, we ended up at the car section. I don’t care much for cars but I’d heard that they were previewing hydrogen cars and I wanted to see one for myself. We didn’t end up finding it but I did come across an orange car.

And then one my size!! Woah!

Maybe I can 3D print my own car in the future???

We continued to check out more cars, including checking out the Ford driving simulator

And then finally onto the gaming section. Check this out! A VirtuixOmni!

Next I got an autographed T-Shirt from Jordan Gilbert at the Intel booth. Just wish it was my size. See what I mean?

Finally I wrapping up the day by cheering on my bud when he got the high score of the hour playing some Benq game on their gaming monitor.

Glad I got to check out CES. Now back home to do some of my own gaming!

My developer conference bounty

Posted on January 3, 2015 by sumi

It’s a new year, and my bud decided there was no better way to celebrate it than by going to a developer conference. So we signed up for the AT&T annual developer conference. They were giving away tonnes of prizes, but unfortunately my bud was too exhausted to compete.

Still, just for showing up, you got some pretty cool stuff. For example, I got a nerf gun that I promptly shot off the balcony.

And I got to try my paws on a Phillips Hue developer kit. We didn’t get to keep that though. Too bad.

All attendees got to visit the swag room and pick out two goodies of their choice. My bud got a Samsung Fit and Myo, while Pokin got a Jawbone and a phone she gave away to someone else. I wanted to sell that phone but I allowed it this time.

BEST part of the whole thing though? Check out the new drone we won on the last day of the event. We were the last number they called!

Time to hook this up and go terrorize some other bears.

It’s showtime, baby (bear)!

Posted on December 25, 2014 by sumi

The one blingy thing we DID do on Christmas Day was we went to see a show. Since Pokin and PoOn wanted to save some money they got the kind of tickets that didn’t come with assigned seating.

So we waited outside the theatre for over an hour to make sure we got an okay seat. No matter. I was in good spirits.

Eventually we were allowed in. Show time!! Turns out the theatre isn’t super big anyway so there were no bad seats in the house.

We went to see V-the Variety show because nobody could decide what we wanted to see. So we got a little bit of everything. I got to see juggling, magic, physical comedy, some skating and some strong people lift other strong people. I liked it. Here was the cast. The two guys from the right were the guys who were originally part of the strong men sequence in Mystere. That’s cool. It’s nice to see other strong beings.

Good show. Go Nicholas, go faster. Let’s go gaming. Go faster.

A Vegasy Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2014 by sumi

We’re in Vegas, so there should have been so much bling! But my bud said we’d do a low key Christmas. It was so low key we did our gift exchange in a room with white walls and a white desk.

Still I was in a festive mood and I was a pretty generous bear this year. Santa Sumi went to town! I made sure my bud had some sweet presents.

And my bud didn’t disappoint. He got me a raptor.

And I got to try on some mittens.

There was even a calendar made with my face on it.

It’ll do for this year being a low key Christmas. But there still should have been more bling.

The new bear

Posted on December 18, 2014 by sumi

Word must have gotten out on the street about my home being some sort of bear haven.

Today marked the arrival of not one, but 4 more bears.

WHAT ARE FOUR EXTRA BEARS DOING IN THIS HOUSE???

This house is only big enough for one bear. ME.

I don’t like where this is going. I don’t need extra bears around. I liked being the biggest bear on the block.

Hmm. Then again, the big fluffy one is kind of cuddly. Maybe he’s not so bad. Ok you can stay, and I shall name you Blanket. And you shall not game, but you shall tuck me in and keep me warm at night.

Good night, Blanket bear.

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

Posted on December 16, 2014 by sumi

With my bear box decimated from the Big Ass TV purchase, I wasn’t able to finance a Big Ass Tree this year. So at first I was worried it wouldn’t really be that festive.

But then a package arrived. Happy Holidays, the box said.

Triple Chocolate Cookies! Double Fudge! This must be the first of many Christmas presents for me! Oh Christmas! I can’t wait!! I got so excited I dove right into the box.

This is the way to kick off celebrations!

Operation backyard

Posted on November 30, 2014 by sumi

I like blowing things up — usually in games. But given that our backyard comprised a barren rocky landscape studded by dead tree trunks I wasn’t that opposed to blowing it up.

Except there would probably be some noise ordinance issues we’d run into, and I’m kind of liking where we live.

So instead I told my bud to buy a pick axe and take it out on the tree trunks.

And here we are uprooting all them tree trunks.

Begone! Tree trunks! I banish thee from my backyard!

Operation Big Ass TV

Posted on October 16, 2014 by sumi

For as long as I can remember I’d been saving money for my TV. Not just any TV. A big one. At the time, Nicholas only had a 42″ TV, and I told him we needed to do way better than that. I wanted an 80″ TV. This bear has big gaming needs. Needs that can only be fulfilled by a Big Ass TV.

Turns out a Big Ass 80″ TV takes a really long time to save for, and I wasn’t getting anywhere close anytime soon despite diligent and vigilant watching over my bud’s wallet for the presence of dollar bills.

Well we were browsing Best Buy one day and my bud jokingly said “I wonder how much projectors cost instead.” Turns out they were much cheaper than 80″ TVs! This is it! My Big Ass screen opportunity!

So we ran into the room, we pulled out my bear box and I started counting bills. Oh yeah. We have enough!

“Get thee a TV for me,” I commanded.

And then a package arrived. My projector!

And then another. Actually it arrived to FedEx but I was impatient and I made my bud go and get it despite the package being oversized and not actually fitting in the car and all. My screen!

Oh yeah, Big Ass TV gaming and moving watching action is about to start. Move over bear bud. I’m getting comfortable for my moving watching marathon. Forget about 80″ TV screens. This Bear got 125″ !!

Operation home makeover

Posted on September 27, 2014 by sumi

With the storm over, it’s time to get started!

We sanded banisters.

We installed ceiling fans.

And built custom benches.

We stripped the floor of tile.

That was a lot of work. And we had to do it all in 48 hours.

sumi bear tile stripping-4

Which meant tile demolition way early into the AM.

Thankfully we had nice neighbours who brought us chocolate and coffee to help us stay awake for the job. Chocolates! Smart neighbours! I like them already.

Our new home

Posted on September 20, 2014 by sumi

Off the boat and on a truck we went. Time to move to our new home in Las Vegas! Since we moved into a fixer home, I guess there will be a lot of ripping things out and putting things back together again. I can do that. I’m good at being a foreman bear. Nicholas, pick up the pickaxe! Let’s rip some stuff up!!

Hmm…maybe we’re going to need to wait out the storm first. This looks like some really wet weather.